


Wing It

by Em_Esta_B



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-11
Updated: 2016-05-11
Packaged: 2018-06-07 18:43:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6819712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Em_Esta_B/pseuds/Em_Esta_B
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Adrien's American cousin comes to Paris to shake things up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wing It

“Adrien, you cousin will be arriving from America this evening to participate in Fashion Week. She will be staying here with us.”  
“Yes, Father.”  
Adrien could remember the last time he saw his cousin. It was shortly after his mother disappeared. He remembered how his father shouted at her; how she stood meeting his father’s fury with tranquil eyes and an empathetic expression. He remembered how her calm had only provoked further anger from his father. He furrowed his brow and whispered a plea for peace upon her arrival this time.

As he slipped back in through his window that night, he could hear the piano from the far wing of the house. Straightening his shirt and fixing the part of his hair, he poked his head out the door. He followed the sound through the house to the large room that housed the lonely instrument. A young woman sat hunched at the bench, her face screwed into an intense expression, but her eyes strangely vacant. The chords were not the same as what was printed on the sheet of music that sat on the instrument, but the melody was there. Adrien leaned on the end of the piano. Fingers flew and improvised syncopated embellishments filled the room with jazz. Gabriel loomed in the doorway. She did not look up from the keyboard. “Y’all need a drum set in here, Uncle Gabe.”  
“I was under the impression that you were only a dancer, but you play jazz as well?”  
“Can’t let that New York education go to waste. Four new forms of dance and three new instruments since last time, as well as all the other accomplishments.”  
“If only my son would show that sort of initiative with his studies.” Melanie looked up at Adrien. Her eyes were as unnerving as ever. “Still fencing?”  
“Yes.”  
“Chinese?”  
“Fluent.”  
“Martial arts?”  
“Three times a week.”  
“Piano?”  
“Every morning.”  
“How are your grades?”  
“High passes in all my classes.”  
“Uncle Gabe, please. He’s ten times more diligent than I was at his age.” She stood up and walked to her uncle, embracing him and kissing his cheek. “Thank you for the invitation to walk in your show this year. And for letting me back in.” Gabriel nodded, turned on his heel, and left the room. Melanie looked back at Adrien. “Well, so much for hoping the Ice Emperor phase had passed. At least he hasn’t called me a gnat yet.” She smiled goofily and shrugged before hugging her cousin. Holding him at arm's’ length, she examined his face. He didn’t know if he should focus on her vacant amber eyes, so he looked at the ornament hidden in her hair. He could barely make out a tiny stripe of yellow in her black hair. “You got huge! I give it two more years before you are taller than me. Gotta pass six feet for that, though. You’re like a panther cub that hasn’t grown into his paws yet.” She sat back down on the piano bench and patted the seat next to her. “Show me what you got, kid.” Hesitantly, he sat and began to play the piece and she provided new harmonies for him. 

“I have to go to school now, but if you want to use my room during the day, feel free.”  
“Thanks, Adri. I’ll see you later.” She winked and then tossed a plastic baggie full of cheese to him. “It’s dangerous to go alone, take this.”

She was leaning against the car at the end of the school day. “Adri! Let’s go!” Chloé looked at Melanie and then at Adrien. “Adrikins, who is that?” Marinette walked down the steps with Ayla and looked at the tall black haired girl calling out to Adrien. “My cousin. Here from America to be in my father’s fashion show next week.” Chloé’s expression changed from upset to pained wanting as she clung to Adrien’s arm. “Come on, dork! I’m giving your warden a day off! We’ve still got the prison guard and Uncle Gabe’s ridiculous schedule though,” Melanie called. Marinette noticed her eyes. The amber color and calm despite the grin were unnatural looking. Melanie’s gaze met Marinette’s and Melanie nodded, almost reverently. Adrien had finally made his way to the car. “Who’s your friend?”  
“Oh, this is Chloé Bourgoise. I think you two met last time you were visiting.”  
“Yeah, hey Chloé, I meant her.” She nodded again in Marinette’s direction. Chloé screwed up her face. Marinette froze. “Oh, that’s Marinette. She’s a friend.”  
“I’d love to meet her while I’m here. But for now, we gotta get you to your Karate lesson.” She brought two fingers to her forehead and debonairly saluted in Marinette’s direction before ducking into the car with Adrien.   
“She’s cool. You should hang out with her more.”  
“You didn’t even meet her.”  
“Didn’t need to. She’s suited to you.”  
“How can you even tell that?” Melanie looked out the window and did not answer. The car arrived at the Karate studio and Gorilla opened the door and escorted the two of them inside. 

The studio was a large empty room with mirrors on the walls. Half of the floor was covered in blue gymnastic mat and the other half was hardwood. Adrien’s instructor was waiting for him in the center of the mat. “Let’s begin with warmup and stretching.” As he led Adrien through the series of stretches, Melanie was on the hardwood copying each exercise, stretching with greater flexibility and performing the strength poses with fluid ease. “Do you also fight, miss?”  
“Not karate, but movement is my thing so I thought I might pick up a few moves while I’m here.” She smiled, a minute flash of mischief running across her face. “Please feel free to join any of the movements that you are capable of. If you would like to spar, you can join us on the mat.”   
“Thank you,” she said, “but I think I will do my own thing here on the hardwood,” and then returned to mimicking the deep squat that Adrien was in. Adrien remained in the squat, beginning a series of punching exercises; Melanie also stayed in the squat, but raised her heels off the ground, shifting her weight to the ball of her foot, then off the ball onto her flattened toe now perpendicular to the rest of her foot, and finally popping onto the very tip of her toe before springing out of the squat entirely and bringing her right leg straight into the air behind her, her back arched and her balance effortless. As quickly as she had sprung up into the pose, she came out of it and stood perfectly still, checking her posture in the mirror. “She’s a dancer in New York.” Adrien explained. “She’s an athlete,” corrected his instructor.   
She eventually joined them on the mat.

Nino was waiting in the foyer looking nervously at Nathalie when they arrived. “Oh, Nino! Thanks for coming to work on the project.”  
“What’re you going to work on?” Melanie’s voice was as calm as her amber eyes. Nino looked at her and lost his words. Adrien looked at his cousin. “A history report. Nino, this is my cousin, Melanie. Melanie, this is my best friend, Nino.”  
“Nice to meet you.”  
“And you. Where are you from? Your accent is..”  
“American. My mom moved to America for university and stayed. I’m just here for a week.”  
“Our paper is about French art around the world.”  
“Oh hey, I can help with that.”  
“Really?” Adrien sounded surprised. “Wouldn’t you rather see the sights?”  
“I can do that later. I’m here for a week. I’m sure I’ll see lots of Paris while I’m here. Besides, I like helping make things the best they can be.”  
“Th-that, yeah, um, thanks!”  
“I gotta eat, but I’ll see you up there.” She glided off down the hall towards the kitchen. “Dude, Nino, are you ok?”  
“Are her eyes always freaky like that? I felt like a wasp was staring me down.” Adrien looked at his friend. “Come on, Nino, she’s not a freak. Let’s get started.”

Melanie walked into her room to see Gabriel looking at her suitcase angrily. “Trying to snoop, Uncle?”  
“Why did you really accept my invitation?”  
“Why did you really invite me?” She cocked her head. “Couldn’t make it past cracking the zipper, huh?”  
“What did you do to it?”  
“Cedar oil. Everything I brought with me is coated in it.”  
“Moth balls?!”  
“Fitting, ain’t it?” She traced a finger across his shoulders as she walked past him. He recoiled at her touch. “Doesn’t do a thing to me or anyone else, but it’ll stop you dead in your tracks as long as you are carrying Nooroo on your person.” He scowled at her. “You Guardians are all alike. Superiority complexes. You don’t know anything!” She smiled, grabbed an instrument case from the closet, and calmly walked out the door. “If you want me out of your hair you can return the Miraculouses that do not rightfully belong to you. Good luck with the snooping, by the way. I’m going to help your son with his homework now. Because, you know, family.”

She perched herself at the top of the skateboard ramp and took a violin out of the case, scratching a few notes. “Is that a FIDDLE?” Nino’s jaw fell open. “Could you possibly be any more American?”  
“Is that a challenge, Nino?” She raised an eyebrow and smiled and then tilted her head towards her boots. “Cowboy boots. She does get more American than just a fiddle.” She smiled, her eyes remaining empty. Nino stifled a shudder. She shook her foot in a way Adrien had not seen her do before, making a series of tapping noises. She looked at him. “It’s called the time step.” She scratched out a few chords and tapped around in a circle and then slid down the ramp. “I got a banjo back in my room, but the paper is on French art around the world.”   
“We were thinking of the Statue of Liberty.”  
“Everyone thinks of the Statue of Liberty. Nobody thinks of Creole culture. I mean, what about the music? Directly influenced by French culture. And the cuisine? Trés Français. Music and food are art just as much as sculpture and painting.”  
“Actually, that’s an incredible idea, Melanie!”  
“Then my work is done and I’m off to see the sights. See you around.”

A young man sat on a bench, his face failing to conceal his anger. A tiny black butterfly landed on the termination notice in his hands. “Paper Pusher, I’m Hawk Moth. I’m offering you a chance to take your revenge on the ones who wronged you. In return I’ll need you to do me a favor.” The man looked up and opened his mouth to respond but felt something sharp on his chest. He looked down and saw a long nailed hand draped over his shoulder, a sharpened finger pressing against his heart. He heard wings buzz behind him. “Ever read Faust,” a voice whispered into his ear. “Yes.”  
“Then I’m sure you know how bad the deal you’re about to make is. Think about it. He wants you to destroy lives and property and then take the fall all so he can get his hands on a couple of trinkets that don’t belong to him. Besides, you weren’t happy at that job anyway. There are tons of other opportunities that are better suited to you.” He looked back up. “No, she’s right, this is dumb. I’m not your Paper Pusher.”  
Marinette didn’t see the akuma enter the paper in the young man’s hands, she just saw a woman in a black and yellow costume whispering in his ear with a blade pressed to his chest. She ducked behind a poster, made sure there was nobody around to see her and then transformed. Ladybug rushed to save the young man.   
The akuma fluttered out of the paperwork and the bee woman vibrated her wings and moved hypnotically, beckoning the black creature towards her, backing away from the man so that he could run to safety. She looked at the akuma and whispered “Mothballs for you,” and then looked at Ladybug. “You going to fix this thing? All I can do is draw them away from what they inhabit. If I’m lucky I can stop the possession before it happens but it doesn’t get rid of the moth.” The yoyo whizzed past the bee woman’s face and the akuma was captured. “Bye bye, little butterfly.” A white butterfly floated away on the breeze. “You’re on our side?”  
“Yeah. Call me Hornet.”  
“Your accent, you sound like Jagged Stone.”  
“Well he’s from California and I’m from New York so we really don’t sound that much alike, but yes I am American.” Her amber eyes bored through Ladybug. “I’ve seen this girl before,” though Ladybug. “So does my cousin know who you are, yet?”  
“What?”  
“Tikki, eventually the partnership won’t function without the partners knowing. I know that the partners haven’t been active at the same time for a few hundred years and the other Miraculous have been able to handle the world in your absence, but Nooroo has been corrupted and you know the drill when that happens to one of us. Identity protocol has got to go out the window. Get in touch with Plagg. Start coordinating. Launch an offensive and put the fool on mothballs.” She walked away and the transformation melted off. Ladybug watched the tall head of black hair walk away. “You did that in public?!”  
“I’m just a Guardian, kid, nobody will remember who I am. See y’around.” She again raised two fingers to her head and saluted to the side, never turning around to meet Ladybug’s eyes.

Hawkmoth roared in frustration.

 

Melanie sat across the matt looking at the ancient acupuncturist. “I was right in sending it to you. Your information has been very valuable.”  
“If you have a more suitable candidate, I will relinquish it and return to my role as a Guardian.”  
“You are the most suitable candidate. Vespe is your partner now.” 

 

Adrien was looking out his window, preparing for the evening’s patrol. He just needed his cousin to finish whatever she was doing to her hair in his bathroom and leave so that he could slip away. When the door slid open he saw that the only thing she had done to her hair was prominently display a decorative comb with a honey bee ornament on the right side of her head. “Getting ready to go do your superhero thing?”  
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”  
“Don’t bluff someone who plays poker twice a week, Adri.” She held up a tiny piece of camembert. Adrien’s eyes widened. He knew that he wouldn’t be able to control Plagg once the scent of the chese reached him. “Come on out, Plagg, say hello to Vespe.” A yellow and black Kwami floated gracefully out of the comb and hovered just above Melanie’s shoulder. Plagg shot across the room and grabbed the cheese out of Melanie’s hand before hiding behind Adrien’s head. “None of us are supposed to meet.”  
“But one of us has been corrupted,” Vespe hummed. “You know what happens in this scenario. We all have to work together, now, and to protect each other we need to know identities. That way if another one of us is corrupted we can be more effective in removing them.”  
“Adri, you might want to get your jaw off the floor.”  
“Your Kwami just suggested that killing is acceptable.”   
“She didn’t say kill, she said remove. As in separate them from their miraculous and Kwami.”  
“Plagg, Claws Out!”  
“Vespe, Let’s Wing It!”


End file.
